


Nicknames

by Gleefreak97



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-28 13:30:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8447773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gleefreak97/pseuds/Gleefreak97
Summary: When Lance pushes Pidge a little too far, will their friendship blossom or fall apart?
A.K.A. The Lance and Pidge bonding fic you might have been looking for.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure where this came from. But, here it is.
> 
> Reminder that Voltron: Legendary Defender does not belong to me. I am only using its characters for my own entertainment. The only things that belong to me are the plot and the original character featured in this piece.

“Hey, Pidgey-pie?”

The young girl sighed before looking up from the screen of her laptop, taking in the sight before her. There stood Lance, in all of his self-explained glory, his stance wide and his grin even wider. She sighed, glaring at the other teenager, before turning back to her work.

“I told you not to call me that.”

Lance chuckled, striding forward and quickly reaching out a hand to ruffle Pidge’s hair. The girl jolted, reaching up a hand to push him off. He laughed again, leaning in closer to the other teen.

“Hey now, Pidge. It’s just a nickname. A cute nickname for a cute pigeon!”

The green paladin scowled, typing even harder at her keyboard. How dare he call her cute. Out of everything he could have said, it had to be that. He knew that she hated it when he called her that. Between the nicknames and the little overused adjectives, Pidge couldn’t believe she actually put up with Lance’s shenanigans. 

“Lance, you know I don’t like it when you call me that.”

“I know, Pidge, but it’s true! You know I can’t help it.”

She glared at him again. Any other time, she would have been able to let this go. But, today? Today she had been filtering through document after document, translating them from the language of the Galra into something they would be able to read. After hours of this, she was pretty tired. She was just about to wrap up when Lance showed up, irritating her even more than she thought was possible. 

“Well, you better learn how to help it.”

At that, Pidge slammed her laptop closed, placing it on the couch beside her. She stood, adjusted her glasses, and then headed for the door, a frown firmly placed on her face. Lance’s smile quickly turned into a frown as he watched her walk away. What had he done wrong?

He followed her out of the room and down the hall, matching her pace. Lance chose to stay several feet behind her, following her from the hall to the kitchen, where she decided to sit down at the counter and stare at the tabletop as if it held the answer to all of her problems. Silently, he sat beside her, holding his breath. When she didn’t say anything, he sighed, preparing himself for what was to come.

“Hey...Pidge? I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

Pidge sighed, resting her head in her hands. She hadn’t meant to snap at Lance, but she was just so tired. It had been a long day, and an even longer couple of months. When she had sat on the roof that one evening at the Garrison, she hadn’t expected to get wrapped up into this whole thing, piloting a robot lion from space that was meant to save the universe. Really, who would expect that?

“It’s okay, Lance. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m sorry I snapped at you, I shouldn’t have done that. I’m just….tired.”

At her statement, Lance frowned. Taking in the sight before him, he noticed everything about her: her slumped posture, her messy hair, her unkempt clothes. When he had looked at her before, he had tried not to notice her bloodshot eyes or the dark circles that lay underneath them. She was tired, he could tell, but what could be keeping her up so late? Narrowing his eyes, the thought suddenly came to him: her family. Her father and her brother...Matt? He was almost sure that was his name. He reached out a hand, placing it on the crown of her head. Pidge tightened her shoulders, and Lance began to gently rub her scalp. She instantly relaxed, and after a few added moments of silence Lance finally spoke. 

“It’s your family, isn’t it? Your brother and your father, maybe even your mom too. That’s what’s bothering you.”

Pidge gasped, shifting her eyes to stare at the older boy. Was it really that obvious? He glanced down at her, and she gave a quick nod before staring back down at the countertop. Lance sighed, glancing up at the ceiling before continuing.

“I thought so. It must be hard. Not knowing where they are or what they’re doing. Whether they’re alive or dead. I can’t even imagine it.”

Pidge nodded again, keeping her eyes cast down. Even though she wouldn’t look him in the eye, Lance knew that she was crying. He knew that she wasn’t exactly the best or most willing to show her emotions, and the fact that she was letting him see this side of her meant this was something dear to her heart. 

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

She shook her head, her hair wrapping itself around Lance’s fingers. He sighed, ruffling her head once again before speaking once more.

“I kind of know how you feel, you know? I mean, nobody in my family has ever been captured by aliens, or ever been to space, but one of my brothers was in the military. He’s about a decade older than me, and he left the day he turned 18. I didn’t see him for months. I was only about 8, when Anselmo left, so I didn’t really understand where he was, why he’d left. All I knew was that he wasn’t home for my birthday, and I only got to see him a few days around Christmas. Other than that, I was completely lost.”

Pidge glanced up at the older boy once more, taking in what she saw before her. Lance stared straight ahead, one hand in her hair and the other on his knee, his knuckles white as he grabbed at the material that lay there. Whatever Lance was telling her, it must be important to him. She had never heard him discuss his family, only hearing him talk about all of the things he missed from Earth, like beaches and rain and sunshine and ice cream on a hot day. But never his family. Sitting up, she wiped her eyes and straightened her glasses. Reaching up, she took Lance’s hand from her hair and held it in hers. As he glanced over, she nodded, silently asking him to continue his tale.

“W-well, when I was about 12 I came home from school to my mom sitting on the couch. She had this piece of paper in her hand, and she just kept reading it over and over. I asked to see it, so I could read it for myself, but she refused. She just kept pulling it out of my reach and telling me to go to the kitchen, get something to eat, and then go to my room, at least until my dad came home.”

“Did you?”

Lance shook his head, tightening his grip on Pidge’s hand. She squeezed back, flashing an encouraging smile his way. He sighed again, then continued.

“No, I didn’t. I should have, but I was stupid and stubborn. I was 12, and I thought that I could hear about whatever my mom was talking about if I just hid and waited for my dad. So, I did. I ran to the kitchen, grabbed a granola bar, and then hid in the pantry. I figured that my parents would probably talk in the kitchen, since my dad usually came in through the side door. After about ten minutes, or about three granola bars, my dad finally walked in the door. As soon as he did, my mom was there, blabbering on and on in a mix of Spanish and English. She was talking so fast that I couldn’t understand her, and it looked like my dad couldn’t either. She just kept repeating ‘Se ha ido. Anselmo se ha ido’ over and over. It was awful.”

Lance used his free hand to rub at his face, attempting to stop what Pidge knew were tears from streaming down his face. She squeezed his hand once more, and waited patiently for him to continue. Once he had composed himself, Lance spoke once more.

“Finally, my dad managed to calm my mom down enough so she could actually speak clearly. Then, he finally understood. And I did too. Anselmo was gone. He….he died. He had died while he was gone. Up until that moment, I hadn’t understood where he’s gone. I just thought he was off on some trip not….not off at war!”

At this, Lance started to cry, the sobs wracking his entire body. Pidge’s eyes widened as she stared at the boy beside her. She had never, in all of their time together, seen Lance cry like this. Sure, she had seen some tears after a rough day in their lions, and had even seen him shed a tear or two over his longing for their home. But, never this. Whatever this was, it was much more. It was raw, it was loud…. And it was hard to watch. She bit her lip, considering her options. She could just let him sit on his own, leave him to deal with his own emotions. But, she knew that he would never leave her alone to do that. He’d help her. He’d find some way to help, and she had to do the same for him. 

Making up her mind, Pidge nodded once before gently sliding off of the chair she was in, being sure to keep Lance’s hand in hers as she moved to stand before him. Standing on her tiptoes, she reached her free arm around Lance’s chest, allowing his head to rest on hers. She pressed her entire body into him, grabbing the back of his shirt. As she moved closer, Lance froze, seemingly surprised by her actions. Considering Pidge’s distaste towards physical contact of any kind, she wasn’t surprised. She just leaned in closer, burying her face into his shirt. 

After a few moments, Lance relaxed, dropping his head into the crook of her neck, wrapping his free arm around her small frame. As the tears fell onto her shirt, Pidge couldn’t help but think of how nice it felt. How nice it was to be like this, to be this close, to Lance. While the position they were in wasn’t comfortable, far from it, it was nice to feel like she could do this with someone other than her own family, someone other than Matt or her parents. Now that she thought about it, Lance was the closest thing she had to family in this castle, maybe the entire galaxy.

Smiling to herself, she started to hum. She couldn’t recognize the name of the song, or even where she had heard it, but it was comforting. As she continued, she felt Lance smile into her neck. Lance began to hum with her, and Pidge couldn’t help but smile wider as they harmonized, his chest rumbling gently against her cheek.

After several minutes of this, Lance lifted his head, placing it on top of Pidge’s head once again. He squeezed her tightly, causing a small ‘oof’ to fall from Pidge’s lips. She was just about to protest when he spoke.

“Thank you.”

She smiled, muffling a quick ‘you’re welcome’ into the older boy’s chest. He smiled, squeezing her once more, before taking his free hand and ruffling her hair. She laughed, turning her head to smile up at him. He smiled right back, and allowed a laugh to fall from his lips. They laughed together, the tears drying from their eyes and happiness beginning to creep its way back into their smiles. Lance ruffled her hair once more, then sighed, relief seeming to flood through him.

“So...Now that we’ve had our cry-fest for the week, how about we have something to eat? Hunk was telling me about some concoction he had whipped up, something about it tasting like peanut butter? And we all know how you feel about that. How about we give it a bit of a taste test?”

At her nod, he gently shifted her off of him, standing and stretching before making his way to the Altean version of a fridge. As she moved to sit back down, she smiled to herself, rethinking of everything that had happened in the past hour. Really, she thought, as annoying as Lance could be, with his nicknames, taunts, and larger than life personality, maybe having him as an older brother, or the closest thing to it, wouldn’t be so bad. She giggled, picturing Lance doing all of the things that Matt would have done when she was younger. He turned, glaring at her from the other side of the room.

“Hey, what’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing. Now, would you just hurry up with that space peanut butter, Sir Lance-a-lot?”

**Author's Note:**

> Whoever figures out the connection between the names of the McClain brothers gets a prize. : )


End file.
